Subject(s): Social Studies, Physical Education Unit Topic: Community
Time Frame: 60 minutes Lesson Topic: Community Workers
NJCCCS Indicators:
Social Studies:Geography, People, and the Environment
6.1.P.B.2 Identify, discuss, and role-play the duties of a range of community workers.
6.1.4.B.4 Describe how landforms, climate and weather, and availability of resources have impacted where and how people live and work in different regions of New Jersey and the United States.
Physical Education
2.5.2.A.1 Explain and perform movement skills with developmentally appropriate control in isolated settings (i.e., skill practice) and applied settings (i.e., games, sports, dance, and recreational activities).
2.5.2.A.2 Demonstrate changes in time, force, and flow while moving in personal and general space at different levels, directions, ranges, and pathways.
2.5.2.B.4 Demonstrate strategies that enable team members to achieve goals.
Enduring Understanding(s):
I want my students to understand the importance of community workers.
Essential Question(s):
Who works in our community?
Why are community workers important?
Performance Outcome(s):
The students will demonstrate the role of the postal worker and the emergency medical workers by playing “Mail Maze” and “Safety Patrol.”
The students will practice teamwork by playing “Mail Maze” and “Safety Patrol.”
In their writing journals, the students will write a letter to a community worker giving three reasons why community workers are important.
Assessment of Student Learning:
Students will write a letter to a community worker of their choice. They will give at least three reasons why that worker is important to our community.
Students will demonstrate teamwork skills by playing “Mail Maze” and “Safety Patrol.”
Students will successfully navigate the maze in “Mail Maze.”
Connections:
In Social Studies, the students will learn about different community workers. In Physical Education, the students will learn to work together as a team in order to role-play community worker’ jobs.
Teacher Resources:
15 packages/letters
Beck, Isabel, Farr, Roger, and Strickland Dorothy. (2003). Trophies: Teacher Edition. Orlando, FL: Harcourt.
Masking tape
New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards. (2009). New Jersey Department of Education. Retrieved March 6,2011 from https://www13.state.nj.us/NJCCCS/home.aspx.
Soft balls
List of Student Materials:
Beck, Isabel, Farr, Roger, and Strickland Dorothy. (2003). Trophies: Teacher Edition. Orlando, FL: Harcourt.
Writing journal
Pencil
Step-by-Step Procedure
Lesson Procedure
- Hook:
- What did we learn about communities in Social Studies?
- Content Procedure
- Discuss students’ prior knowledge of communities.
- Ask students “who works in a community?”
- “Well, today we are going to read a story about a mailman named Mr. Curtis.”
- Read “Goodbye, Mr. Curtis.” Answer questions from Anthology book after each page.
- “Mr. Curtis was a mailman. What do mailmen do? We are going to play a game, and you are going to show me what mailmen do.”
- Play “Mail Maze.”
- Divide students into 3 groups.
- Tape 3 mazes on the floor.
- Assign each group to a maze.
- Give each group 5 letters/packages.
- To play this game, students must take turns being the mailman and delivering packages or letters to their group members. The students receiving the packages stand at designated points throughout the maze. The students acting as mailmen run through the maze and deliver their packages. The students take turns being the mailman until all students have had a turn.
- Once everyone has gone, the group sits down.
- The first group to finish wins.
- The game ends when all groups have finished.
- “We are going to play another game about people who work in a community. Who takes care of you when you are sick? Does anybody else take care of you when you are sick? What about the ambulance? Who drives the ambulance?”
- Play “Safety Patrol.”
- Students are divided into 2 teams.
- The play area is divided into 2 sides.
- A line of soft balls are laid on the dividing line.
- 2 students from each team are designated as the “safety patrol.”
- The teams must throw balls at the other team. When a student is hit, they sit down and yell “safety patrol!” One of the members of the safety patrol must tag them in order for them to resume playing. The other team must try to hit the safety patrol to get them out. Once a safety patrol is out, the other safety patrol person may not tag them back in.
- The team whose safety patrol is left standing at the end wins.
- The game ends when one team has lost their safety patrol.
- Alternate Plan
- Students will be given extra time at the end of the day to finish their letter if they need it.
- If we run out of time, we will only play “Mail Maze.”
- Closure
- “We learned a lot about community workers today. We are going to write a friendly letter today just like the friendly letter that you wrote to Mrs. Mercano. You can write a letter to Mr. Curtis or to a community worker in your town. Don’t worry if you don’t know their name. In your letter you must write three reasons why their jobs are important. Let’s think of a few right now.”
- Create a list of student responses.
- Review the format of a friendly letter.
- “How do we start a letter? What is this called? What part comes after that?”
- Give students 20 minutes to write their letter.
Procedure Analysis
- Guided Practice
- Students will help the teacher write the format for the friendly letter on the board. This will remain on the board while students are writing their letters.
- Independent Practice
- Students will write their friendly letter.
- Differentiation/Accommodation
- Students may work with the teacher to create reasons for the importance of community workers.
- Students may fill in an outline of a letter.